Choking back tears on the witness stand, Greg Meffert said he feels remorse for hurting the citizens of New Orleans when he allegedly took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from former city vendor Mark St. Pierre.

View full sizeJohn McCusker, The Times-PicayuneGreg Meffert arrives at the federal courthouse in New Orleans on Wednesday for a second day of testimony in Mark St. Pierre's bribery trial .

"I let everybody down," Meffert said.

In the most emotional part of St. Pierre's bribery, conspiracy and money laundering trial in federal Judge Eldon Fallon's court in New Orleans, Meffert described how he repeatedly lied to FBI agents, under oath in civil court and to the public about what he called "the criminal enterprise between myself and Mark St. Pierre."

Meffert pleaded guilty last year to accepting $860,000 in kickbacks from St. Pierre in exchange for millions in no-bid city work. He said he regretted dragging his wife, Linda, into the arrangement, having her receive some of the alleged kickback payments and using her accounting background as an initial alibi to FBI agents.

He said Linda Meffert had two nervous breakdowns, in 2004 and again in 2009, related to the couple's financial distress. She ended up pleading guilty, too, but will have the charges dropped against her if she and Greg Meffert cooperate with the government.

"I regret dragging her into this, more than anyone can know," he said as he appeared to cry for the first time during the testimony.

Meffert said that in the past, when he was questioned about the arrangement and payments in depositions or by the FBI, he tried to evade the questions or, when that wasn't possible, lied. He said he benefited when lawyers for companies that made crime cameras and had their city work redirected to St. Pierre failed to ask more about the alleged conspiracy.

But when the FBI visited him in February 2009, the agents showed Meffert a $38,000 check that St. Pierre had paid to Linda Meffert.

"At that point I pretty much died inside and tried to think of anything that I could," Meffert said. He lied again, he said, and told the FBI that the $38,000 was for accounting services Linda Meffert had provided to St. Pierre's firm NetMethods.

Prosecutors asked Greg Meffert what would happen if he lied this time, given that he didn't plead guilty to all of the original charges against him and has yet to be sentenced for his crime.

"I didn't plead guilty to each and every count, but I accepted responsibility to all of the actions within the count I did plead guilty to," Meffert said. "It was time to stop lying.

"I know the plea agreement is blown up if I don't tell the truth now.

"In the end, my understanding is that whatever happens to me is up to Judge Fallon and wherever it ends up, up to eight years (in prison), the best thing, the only thing I can do now is tell the truth.

"If I lie on the stand, the agreement's torn up and I face all of the charges all over again."

St. Pierre's attorney, Eddie Castaing, is beginning his cross-examination of Meffert.